Fourth week Melbourne

Besides being bitten by a spider, which was quite painful, I’ve had a great week in Melbourne.

I had a lovely weekend with my daughter and Son in Law and met up with family I haven’t seen for 14 years, all in all a jolly weekend.

I’ve had a busy week, I have met up with fantastic people who are totally committed to improving the journey through the criminal justice system for victims of rape and sexual abuse.

The first day I went to the Department of Public Prosecution. It took quite a lot organising and form filling before they would agree to see me.

I was due to meet up with The manager of the Witness Assistance Services (WAS) and two of the social workers.

Unfortunately The Manager’s daughter was sick so she was off work. In the end I only met up with one social worker because the other one was in court.

Marnie, The social worker that I did meet was extremely helpful and probably provided me with all the information I needed.

The Witness assistance services is part of the Office of Public Prosecution, they assist victims and witnesses of serious crime throughout the prosecution process. It is slightly similar to the ISVA service but not independent and not as comprehensive.

On the other days I joined up with Natalie Hall (Director Parkerville Children and Youth Care) who I had met in Perth. Also joining us were; Jen Hoffman. (Commissioner Victims of Crime), John McTernan (Detective Sergeant, Child Abuse Squad) and Cheryl Barnett Executive Director, Child Protection and Family Support.

They had all come over from Perth and, like me, they were interested in finding out more about the Multi Disciplinary Teams. They had already set up appointments and were happy for me to muscle in on their meetings.

Here we all are with Carolyn from SECASA at the Multidisciplinary Centre in Dandenong

 

Multidisciplinary Centers (MDCs) involve multiple agencies working collaboratively to provide an integrated and holistic response to victims of sexual assault from a single location. Better integration and co-location of various agencies has the capacity to significantly improve the response to sexual offending.

Co-located specialist professionals include:

 *   Victoria Police Sexual Offences Child Abuse Investigation Teams    
 *   Department of Human Services (DHS) Child Protection
 *   Centres Against Sexual Assault (CASA) Counsellors/Advocates.

Information provided by Carolyn Worth SECASA (Centre Against Sexual Violence)

The Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) in 2004 handed down 202 recommendations in a Sexual Offences: Law and Procedure Final Report.  The Victorian Government response to the VLRC’s recommendations was to develop a whole of government strategy and allocate, in the 2006-2007 State budget, $34.2 million over 4 years aimed at reforming the way the criminal justice system responded to sexual assault.  $6 million was provided for the creation of a pilot project of two Multidisciplinary Centers one rural and one metro based.  An evaluation was conducted by Deakin University. The purpose of these Centers was to deliver integrated justice and human services responses by bringing together one of the newly created 27 Victoria Police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Teams (SOCIT) with a sexual assault center.  Child Protection workers were added into the model later.

We visited 3 MDC’s

Dandenong Opened October 2014

Seaford (previous pilot site of Frankston 2007) Opened 2012

           

Barwon (Geelong) Opened July 2012

All three MDC’s that we visited had incredible purpose built centres. The buildings had no signage for anonymity.

We met up with many MDC Managers and Staff during visits. All of them said they had found the MDC concept difficult at first but they all agreed that they wouldn’t want to go back to working separately as it was before.  

  

Benefits Articulated by MDC Managers and Staff during visit;

·      Coordinated care for victims

·      Timely response

·      Increased reporting of sexual offences ( 25% in Barwon)

·      Accessibility of services

·      Increased referrals

·      Victims understand and are kept appraised of the legal status of their case

·      Minimises the number of service providers

·      Dignity and respect throughout the process

·      Options talks – if victim in counselling expresses interest in talking to police, SOCIT member is invited to join in session and discuss options

·      Outcome talks – if not enough evidence to proceed SOCIT and Counsellor meet with victims together, SOCIT provides info on decision and Counsellor support

It’s been a fantastic week. I’ve leaned loads and I never cease to be amazed by how hospitable the Australians are.

I’m off to Sydney next week. I’m hopefully going to find out more about the Royal Commission into Institutional Childhood Sexual Abuse.  

I'm having the most amazing time. I'm not only learning about the issue, I'm also learning loads about myself !